Santa Clara County district attorney: Rosen has thin lead over Carr

Deputy district attorney Jeff Rosen, who is challenging his boss, district attorney Dolores Carr for her job waits for an announcement of the latest return at the Agenda Lounge in San Jose during the election night party on June 8, 2010. (Dai Sugano/Mercury News)

In a startling development, Santa Clara County's most competitive race is still being bitterly fought today, with no clear winner emerging for district attorney.

Veteran prosecutor Jeff Rosen is holding a razor-thin lead over District Attorney Dolores Carr, 50.61 percent to 49.39, with all precincts reporting. However, there are still several thousand mail-in ballots still not counted. If Rosen wins, it would be the first time in at least 83 years that a challenger has wrested the office from an incumbent district attorney. Even if he only comes close, it would be extraordinary. Sitting district attorneys are usually invincible in Santa Clara County, but Rosen has built his campaign on Carr's missteps and controversial decisions.

Both candidates expressed confidence Tuesday night they would ultimately triumph.

"We're ahead now and I believe our lead is going to grow because our campaign got stronger and stronger as it went on," Rosen said.

In a scant eight months, Rosen raised a sizable war chest — $245,000, just $107,000 less than Carr, who has been raising money for three years and dipped into her own pocket for $70,000.

Carr said she believes Rosen's lead will evaporate once more votes are counted. During the campaign, she tried to deflect his criticism by focusing on her experience and offering nuanced apologies for her "mistakes" — while asserting that the lessons she's learned from those blunders made her a better choice than Rosen.

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"It's early, we're optimistic. I'm proud of what I've accomplished in my first term," she said, adding she hoped the voters would ultimately agree.

A winner will not be announced until as late as Friday, according to the county registrar of voters. That's because so many voters dropped off their mail-in ballots at the last minute Tuesday that they won't begin to be counted until today.

The race was contentious from the moment Rosen launched his campaign in November. Carr, a former judge, has been criticized for intervening on behalf of a campaign contributor's client; for failing to see the potential conflict in her husband's financial involvement with a murder victim's family, and for boycotting a judge who found that a prosecutor committed misconduct.

Carr's decision not to charge anyone for the alleged gang rape of a 17-year-old girl at a De Anza College baseball players' house party three years ago also was controversial. The issue resurfaced recently when documents in the girl's civil case against some of the players showed that Carr's office did not test all of the evidence in the criminal case.

Velda Mark, an Almaden homemaker, said the De Anza controversy figured in her decision to vote for Rosen.

"I just felt it was time for a change," Mark said.

Carr tried to draw attention to what she said was Rosen's lack of ethics, noting he had been flagged by an appeals court for an error in a trial eight years ago. But after the judge and defense attorney in that case supported Rosen, she wound up focusing more heavily on his lack of management experience.

Carr also sued Rosen, arguing his ballot statement violated the elections code and should be amended.